Parents: School Lunches

We have our kids (11 and 7) pack their own lunches. Choices range from leftovers, lunch meat and sliced cheese, peanut butter. There are chips/pretzels but baked or the more natural kind (Snikiddy for example) and plenty of fruits and veges. The general rule is they are not supposed to throw anything away but bring it home so they can explain why they didn't eat whatever it was. Some stuff comes home but not a lot. I think most of that is because they have ownership over their lunch. We send them in with all natural fruit juice sometimes but mostly water.

Good luck finding the balance that works for you and your family.

bumping to read later

Mind you this was in the 50's andearly 60's, but the schools I went to, they actually prepared a fresh meal daily, i remember great rolls,beets and other yummy foods. we looked forward to lunch. Now days its some prepackaged crap according to goverment guidelines. they charge more for less too. It seems to me they would save money buying in bulk and actually make the workers do their job in this area.

My thoughts:

1) The idea that they're charging him full price to go get a snack cake is ridiculous.
2) I hope you still allow your child to have some sweets in an otherwise well-balanced diet.
3) I don't think there's any issue with cold food. I say pack his lunch every day.
4) I wouldn't get too caught up in what food is "good" and what is "bad". The diet as a whole is of importance.

:grumble: Yes we have been here before and it's still so fatty,so sugary,so expenceive so full of salt acually total cr@p the school dinners,i know you are in the states but i'm in the uk, the goverments don't get it thats how the kids are gonna get bigger and unhealthy! But the goverment just want to say no to some of the big firms and stop letting them take the p/ss out of us all!
It's not just school dinners tho its all foods we eat,cerial in the mornings,bread,OMG i could go on for ever! :explode: :sad:

I live in Europe, but I just spent 2 years in the US. My two kids attended primary school in North Carolina. The school lunches were OK. However, what really got me was the following:

1 - Snack foods were everywhere, so kids had easy access to Cokes, cakes, chips, etc. It was not free, but kids always find a way to sneak in money. And in some cases, the lunch credit could be used for these items. This is often promoted by the school, as they are being paid money by large corporations to stock these terrible foods. It's disgusting.

2 - The teachers themselves were constantly giving out candy as rewards. This drove me crazy. Most teachers had a big bowl of candy right on their desks. "Great Johnny, thanks for being good today, have some candy." I wanted to scream. I literally had to implement a system where my kids could exchange their candy rewards for money that they could use to buy toys (Pokemon cards, etc.). And of course I complained constantly to the school administrators, who eventually viewed me as a crackpot.

3 - The school had the option of ordering a special take out meal one day a week, which consisted of fast food! Pizza, KFC, etc. Yes, they also offered a healthy option, after some parents complained. But who is going to eat a salad and fish when little Susie next to them is eating Pizza Hut?? I just had to bite the bullet and let them have fast food that one day, since everyone else in their class was chomping away at pizza.

4 - The parents (!!!) often brought fast food to their kids during lunchtime. Literally drove to school with the food. And it was always crappy fast food. One poor girl who was terribly overweight (this was the 2nd grade) got Taco Bell everyday from her (surprise, also overweight) mother. I asked her about it once, in a nice way. She said that it's all her daughter would eat!!! Now there's a great example of parenting.... You can imagine how doubly hard it became to convince my kids to eat baked chicken, rice, and lettuce when the girl next to them is chowing down on Taco Bell every single day (and my God does that food smell terrible).

It was the south in the US, where so many people seem to be overweight. But it was the school itself that encouraged this. The ignorance was just unbelievable. They were literally teaching an entire generation of kids how NOT to eat.

The head administrator herself was 300 pounds minimum. Again, clueless.

--Prahasaurus

Quick post haven't read everything, but Dixon Montessori in California has a great program for kids lunches as does many of the schools in Davis, CA - organic healthy choices

I found an interesting homemade alternative to lunchables here that are healthier and cheaper:

http://www.squawkfox.com/2011/09/09/lunchables/

Gave me some neat ideas!

We are fortunate enough to have my oldest in a private school and my youngest in a program where they actually do give them healthy foods. My oldest gets 'hot lunch' 2 days a week. On Tuesday it is a local restaurant or fast food (tacos, real hot dogs, roasted chicken) and then fresh fruit, veggies, milk or juice. On Friday it is 1 or 2 pieces of pizza and fresh fruit or veggies. We choose some of these lunches for him, otherwise, we pack everything ourselves. The public school lunches here are horrible. Things I would never feed my family and my kids have never seen. (And what we eat is far from perfect)

Here in Norway, most schools don't offer lunches at all. Kids bring their own lunches, usually a sandwich that is made of two slices of dark bread and some cheese/nutella/jam, usually made by the kid herself. They get free fruit at school and the parents can pre pay a small carton of milk for them. They are not allowed to bring snacks or candy at all, unless it is a special occasion.

It is not super healthy, but from my viewpoint a much much better option than some of the school lunches you write about. Lunch does not have to be fancy and complicated. it has to be filling and good enough for the kid to get through a school day.

lucky me
I went to school in poland
and never ever had junk food for lunch
it was always:
soup,
main meal (meet/fish, starchy carbs, side of vegs - big side of vegs, at least same amount as meat)
kompota - not sure what the name is in English, it's juice obtained by boiling fruit untill all the juice goes int water, with sugar added)
fruit for dessert - i think it was always fruit for whole 8 years, no matter if it was friday, day before holiday... food (junk food) as a treat was not an option, we didn't have vending machines neither

Now I live in Spain, here they to serve junk food on Fridays in school cafeteria, but every other day, it's pretty healthy

REALLY starting to think I would be in much better shape if I lived in another country ^^^^ this is a perfect example

So between my bad diet and lack of good weather (I'm in the UK) which means your not inclinded to be out and about doing outdoor activities /sports and spend time trying to stay warm and cozy.

but i digress ....

One of my nephews has school dinners and the other packed lunch.

The school dinners nephew often tells us of combinations such as 'fish and yorkshire pudding', as well describing what he's had by colour and texture (the yellow gooey cake with crunchy soft stuff on top... lemon meringue?). At this school, it seems the really need to regulate combinations so the children are getting a healthy balance. Bear in mind they run around in the playground after lunch, so would something a bit more slow release than a yorkshire be better? And why is he not told what his meals are called?

The packed lunch nephew gets in trouble as my sister makes him tuna pastas etc, where the dinner ladies insist he needs something 'easier' to eat (i.e. they can't be bothered to help him clean up after) like a sandwich.

When I finished high school they changed the rules so you could only buy biscuits and cakes if you bought a dinner object (like a sandwich etc). They weren't turning over enough profit and sold biscuits on the sly anyway.

There's a girl just had her blog taken down, which showed ratings and pictures of her school dinners - some of the combinations there are scary!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18472795

As for cookies, my kids love Oreos. But they don't sell there here like in the US, in bulk, where the kids can open the package and eat many, many cookies in one sitting.

You basically buy them here by the box, with each box containing four packages of Oreos, each package with four cookies in them. Long story short, they get four Oreos at a time, and that's it. So they're happy they get cookies, but I know they can't eat any more than four. Win, win.

It's probably more expensive to buy them this way, but I strongly recommend it if it's available in the US. It really lets the parent manage the portion sizes, and trains the kids (I hope) that four cookies is a proper snack.

--Prahasaurus

I'm a teacher at the school my daughter attends and it's a struggle. Ours is probably middle of the road in terms of nutrition---we don't have a salad bar sadly but they do make nutritional information easily available, don't allow bags of chips, offer a premade salad and yogurt as options, and three hot lunches. But they're still nasty. Many kids at our school get free or reduced price lunch and so many kids buy lunches. My DD wants to at times to be like the other kids in her class. I usually give her the option to buy lunch once a week and the rest of the week pack a lunch (no microwave for her, although I could probably take the lunch down and microwave it myself but I don't want her to get a special exception because I'm there). I send pretty much the same stuff as everyone else but do try to liven it up with a fun note or something cool. We had a discussion this year about why I don't want her to buy lunch all the time and actually, all the other school employees got in on it too because they think it's nasty as well. I think it was the school secretary who finally clinched the deal when she pointed out to DD that we all know there were bugs at the school,right? DD nodded. Secretary leaned over and asked where did DD think the bugs came from? DD's eyes got big, she went pale, and clutched her lunchbox a bit tighter.